As the sun was setting beyond Raider Field, Cody McCann was running for daylight, and perhaps, to allow the Essex Ravens to pull victory out of the fire.

Fate has a funny way of reminding those that it’s not wise to tempt it.

McCann, as sure-handed a ball carrier as there is on the Essex roster, was hit just before reaching paydirt. The ball squirted loose, the Niagara Spears recovered, and the Ravens’ season, for all intents and purposes, was over.

The fumble was the final act in a comedy of errors played out by the Ravens as they dropped Saturday’s OVFL Adam Conference final to the Spears by a 20-16 count.

“We didn’t deserve it,” Ravens coach Glen Mills summed up succinctly.

The problems literally began with the opening kickoff, which Essex fumbled and Niagara recovered, leading to a field goal. After the Ravens failed to convert a fourth-and-one play, the Spears took over and marched for a touchdown, making it 10-0 after one quarter.

“We made a million mistakes,” Mills said. “The first half, I didn’t even recognize our football team.

“It was very frustrating.”

For a kickoff, the Ravens had only 11 men on the field. They were forced to call timeout before punting because there were 13 in the huddle.

Essex Ravens quarterbacks coach Steve Snyder tries to motivate his team as they trailed the Niagara Spears during the conference finals match at Raiders Field Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013. The Spears beat the Ravens 20-16, winning the Adam Conference Championship. (JOEL BOYCE / The Windsor Star)

“We had a bunch of problems at the beginning with miscommunication,” Ravens receiver Chris Drouillard said.

“We haven’t had that problem all year,” Mills said of the mental mistakes. “When you’re in a big game like this, the team that’s the sharpest mentally, that makes the least mistakes, that’s the team that’s going to win.

“Our guys struggled with that.”

When Essex finally did put together a drive deep into Niagara territory, quarterback Brandon Reaume was intercepted.

Reaume started the game on the bench, punishment for breaking team rules just two days before Saturday’s game. Early in the second half with Essex trailing 17-7 and Reaume displaying a bad case of happy feet in the pocket, he was benched in favour of Dimitri Robbins.

“Mr. Reaume had some troubles all week,” Mills said. “He got himself in a little trouble on Thursday and that’s why he didn’t start.

“What young men don’t understand is that everything you do will in some way or another correlate back on to the football field. His troubles he had away from the field correlated into his game.

“He was not very good. It’s no surprise. I pointed it out to him.”

Essex Ravens running back Khaliel James runs through an opening in the conference finals match against the Niagara Spears at Raiders Field Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013. The Spears beat the Ravens 20-16, winning the Adam Conference Championship. (JOEL BOYCE / The Windsor Star)

Defensive lineman Nick Simone felt a sense of malaise leading up to the game and thought that the Ravens were thinking about the future instead of maintaining their sights on what was in front of them.

“Our week of practice, our whole team was kind of off,” Simone said. “We were thinking about next week.

“We were thinking about the championship (game). We weren’t thinking about this game.”

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Ravens, trailing 20-7, began to resemble themselves, and they nearly rallied for the victory.

“Once the second half started, we just needed to something to get us started to get us going and it did happen,” Drouillard said. “We just couldn’t push it through.”

Ultimately, more mistakes did them in for good.

“We had the opportunity to take the lead and we made some more mistakes,” Mills said. “We didn’t play with any type of urgency until probably the final nine minutes.

“If you want play in a championship football game, you’ve got to play the entire game.”

The Ravens learned that lesson the hard way and now will wait a long time until they get to play again.

Essex Ravens wide receiver Martez Lambert falls with a Niagara Spears player after the ball was blocked during the conference finals match at Raiders Field Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013. The Spears beat the Ravens 20-16, winning the Adam Conference Championship. (JOEL BOYCE / The Windsor Star)

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